Resurrection Every Day!
A while ago my friend posted a photo in honor of celebrating Taco Tuesday at their favorite place in town. As an avid taco consumer, I enjoyed seeing the beautifully captured gifts from heaven through a picture. As an observer, I also noticed somebody posted something as a reply to their photo that changed my perspective on things. (And, yes, the Lord speaks to me through tacos, Instagram, and other silly things...)
They commented, "In our house, we don't discriminate days of the week. Everyday is taco day." I couldn't agree more. Tacos should not be limited to just Tuesday.
But here's where it gets even better. (And, yes, things get better than tacos. And, no, that's not blasphemous...) How often do we limit things with the Lord to one day each week? We check in on Sunday mornings, sing our songs, drop our money in a box (or not), listen to some pastor talk about the Bible, and then go home only to throw it all away and soak in other things like sports, sex, status, soap operas, etc.
How often do we limit our celebration of God's work to one day a year? We step into a church building on Easter Sunday in our prettiest dress or nicest tie but leave our party clothes and attitudes at the church. We lift our voices to respond with "He is Risen, Indeed!" yet when Monday morning follows we might send out a shout of "I need my caffeine!", "Where did I place my keys?", or other such phrases in dismay.
Here's the catch. Much like my friends who don't limit tacos to only Tuesday, the Resurrection is an everyday event that stretches well beyond Sunday to eternity. Jesus' blood has bought more than Sunday and our lives are now empowered with the same Spirit who raised Him from the dead to live in exuberant festivity!
N.T. Wright writes in Surprised by Hope, "...My friends, we are Easter people! We stand on resurrection ground. Easter is not only our greatest party...Easter is the only reason we are here at all! So why...do we not celebrate wildly, lavishly, gloriously, at great length, and with studied disregard for normal propriety? ...We should make Easter a forty-day celebration. If Lent is that long, Easter should be at least that long...Jesus' resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven.”
COME ON!
I write all of this to say that as Christians we do not celebrate the Resurrection one day a year but every day of our lives. The resurrection is our life and our breath is the Risen Savior's Spirit of victory in our lungs. Our existence is held together in the love of God who is ALIVE.
Easter Sunday is good. Resurrection Every Day is eternally and abundantly more than what we can imagine.
As Easter people, here are three ways to be hosts to this world of the Resurrection party we present with our lives every day.
1. Curiosity
The authors of the Gospel accounts tell us that Resurrection Sunday starts with curious women coming to an empty tomb. It continues with disciples who are intrigued by these women's statements running to the empty tomb. The Resurrection is filled with wonder.
As Easter people, we are called to be like children who walk in constant awe. The purity and bliss of a child's first time seeing the ocean, tasting their first ice cream, or their first time catching a ball. As those on whom the Father has lavished such love that we would be called children of God (1 Jn. 3:1), we can walk in the curiosity of how deep, long, wide, and high this love is in Christ Jesus (Eph. 3:14-20).
As those who are filled with the power of the Resurrection and now called beloved children, heirs, and co-heirs with Christ Jesus, we can curiously and full of wonder recognize the empty tomb every day. We can boldly approach a full throne room and live in the presence of the One who we will search out forevermore. Ask, seek, and knock, beloved. He answers, He guides, and He opens. Live that curious Easter life in the mystery of God in flesh: Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ is coming again!
2. Completion
IT IS FINISHED. There's a curiosity about the goodness of God given to us, but there's no question about the work that is finished. Jesus has completed the Father's business and breathed His Spirit upon those who have responded to His great love. It is not partially done, it is fully and entirely accomplished.
This means our lives are neither a performance to earn anything nor a striving to finalize work. We are crowned with the concluded task of our King. We live in the Savior' settlement to our struggle.
Every day is a day of completion and the Resurrection reveals that wherever we go we stand on victory. The other day our softball team won our game and the tradition is the losing team gathers around the pitcher's mound while the winning team joins together on home plate. It is to show that the winning team took home plate and victory on the field. Our team forgot to practice this and one of my buddies was filling me in on our mishap.
In response, I proclaimed, "Bro, everywhere I stand is victory." Bros and sis', everywhere we stand in Jesus is victory. The Champion is alive and His banner of love is over our lives. We walk in the completed work of God and we live in triumph!
3. Celebration
Resurrection Every Day! My wedding day was one of the most fun days of my life. It was packed with amazing family, food, and fellowship. We danced for hours, honored one another, and praised God for what He had brought together.
I know for many, Easter Sunday is the most fun day of the year. It's a day filled with victory songs and expressions of hope found in our Savior! But much like my wedding day, it is a celebration of a lifetime of covenant. Resurrection Sunday is one day on the calendar, but an eternity in our hearts.
Our lives are now giant parties expressing the glorious Resurrection of our King! Our problems are not pity parties but are invited into the Resurrection parade. The things that seem dead to us are welcomed to know the One who once was dead and is now alive. Hope is the twinkle in our eye, joy is the 'something' about our smile, and resurrection the power in our veins.
St. Augustine once wrote, "We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song!" Friends, we are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song, indeed! Live in the wondrous curiosity of the Lord's goodness, the blessed peace of Jesus' completed work, and the exuberant joy of celebrating our King every day.
Resurrection Sunday is Resurrection Every Day! Let your life song sing of the victory we walk upon and invite your neighbor to the eternal banquet of our God who is alive!
To a world filled with people who sing like their Savior has Risen every day, I write and pray. Every Day is Resurrection Sunday! And yes, Resurrection Every Day is way better than tacos. Amen.
